in Hebrews chapter 1, Psalm 115, verses 1 through 8. Not to us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto your name give glory, because of your mercy, because of your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, So where is their God? But our God is in heaven. He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. Feet they have, but they do not walk. nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them, so is everyone who trusts in them." From Hebrews chapter 1, the first three verses. In contrast, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." I want to speak to you this morning on the topic of the speaking God, the God who speaks. Our God is heard, not seen as idols. Nor is he impassive and impotent, as are the gods fashioned out of men's imaginations. He is real and active. He is not the god of men's inventions and ingenuity. of all the gods that man has created, none are like the God of the Bible, and the God of history, and the God of eternity. Man would never make a god like the one of the God of eternity. Ours is a speaking God. In speaking, He addresses our intelligence, Our minds are understanding, not animal feelings, passions and emotions. He does not move us. He moves us, but he does not move us through sensational sights of the idol itself or of idolatrous productions, unintelligible sounds, groans, whines, beats, thumps, mystical sensations as employed by contemporary worship leaders and special music. Our worship rises in our singing and our adoration arises out of what He says. He never leaves us to our imaginations, our dreams, our own foolish, vain ideas. or the lies of doctrines and demons. Isn't that wonderful that He doesn't leave us to those things? Our God speaks. His words inform us. They banish our darkness and ignorance with light and understanding. His words reprove us. for our past and present errors and disobedience. It's what we call repentance. His words correct us and encourage us in the right way. It's called edification and instruction. He governs. The speaking God governs. If He governs, He must speak. And He does govern. He directs and He guides us in the way which He prescribes. The Bible describes Him as our Great Shepherd who leads us. So the speaking God in our text in Hebrews 1 and 3 tells us, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past. That is, this God who speaks speak in times past. The God who now speaks to us is the God who has always spoken, even when there was none to hear, but He who spake. He spake in eternity in the words of the poet. Amid the eternal silences, God's endless Word was spoken. None heard, but He who always spoke, and the silence was yet unbroken. But He also spoke in the creation, spoke the creation into existence by the Word of His power. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things that are seen are made of things which do not appear by the Word of His power. Matter out of nothing. The only way we can understand that and accept it is the fact that God said it and the stark reality of we see it all around us. Where did it come from? He not only spoke in history, He spoke in eternity, but He speaks in history to our fathers. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers, He spoke to those who preceded us, for whom we descended. There never has been a time when God has not spoken to His people. So we speak to our fathers, those who preceded us in the knowledge of Him, and who left us a record of what He said. We call that scriptures, recorded scriptures of God's speaking and God's dealing with those who went before us in times past. And we're also told that he spoke to the fathers by the prophets. Which prophets? To whom he spake, he spoke to the fathers, not directly, not personally as I'm speaking to you here now. He spoke to the fathers by the prophets. That is, he spoke to the prophets and the prophets told the fathers what God said. He did not speak to everyone. He only spoke to certain individual ones who were called seers or oracles, prophets. How did He speak to those prophets? How did they know that it was God speaking? Well, the only answer to that is that it was God. If He's able to speak to a man and for that man to know that God is speaking to him, then God is able to make that man understand this is God. That's the way Abraham knew it was God. So he spoke to those fathers by the prophets. And he spoke to the prophets, how? Well, sometimes in an audible voice. They heard a voice. Sometimes in dreams and visions, which was the principal way in which the Word of God came to a prophet. We have dreams nowadays, I don't think, God speaking to us, and most of them are caused by lots of things. But they knew when they had a dream and it was God speaking to them. Or by visions. Visions is something that doesn't necessarily happen while you're asleep, but something that you see. And on rare occasions, what is called theophanies, that is, the appearance. of God in human form, probably appeared to Abraham that way, to Abram that way in Ur of the Chaldees. The Bible says the God of our glory appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees. He appeared to Abram and Sarah as Abram was sitting in the tent door, giving them a prophecy. Once again, the confirmation of just one year and they would be here, be visited and Isaac would come. So sometimes in appearances like that, probably Melchizedek may have been an appearance of Jesus in that way. He spoke in parables and in narratives, in figures, in symbols, in types, in rituals, and ceremonies. For instance, as we've already indicated, the narrative of creation itself is God speaking concerning the nature and character and principle of ideas in redemption and in salvation. Figures of times to come in the book of Joshua, in the book of the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness and their temptations and their trials. were given as types and symbols for us to come in the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of Jordan. Types of baptism. The offering up of Isaac by Abraham and the giving of him. Types not only of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and the figure of the realm that was given as a substitute in Adam. Isaac's place, but also of the fact that God tests us. In the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, in which He has spoken to us later, more particularly, if a man is not willing to forsake his father and his mother, his wife, children and everything for my sake. He cannot be my disciple." And that's not just a mystical or an unreal supposition. It really happens. Multitudes of people lose their families and just about everybody they love for the sake of Christ in whatever way it is. And God has loved us in such a way that He will stop at nothing short of taking away every idol and every barrier and everything that interposes us between Him and us, as He did Isaac. God so that He had spared not even on His own Son, God knew He had a man He could use to call the Father of those who believe. So that's the way He spoke to us in times past and spoke to the fathers. symbols and types, rituals and ceremonies, the sacrifices, the brazen altar in the tabernacle, the showbread, the type of Christ, our fresh bread every morning, the altar of incense, which was not a blood sacrifice, but just sweet holders descending up, ascending up to God, prayers of the saints, our worship, our singing, our joy in Him, all of those The Fathers didn't understand all of those things, but He spoke those things to them, and they were recorded for us, upon whom the ends of the world have come for our sakes, that we might understand this God who has always spoken. He spoke in poetry. That's what we have in the Psalms, some of the Proverbs, and some of the other passages. Most of what is speaking, although, is somewhat in prose. the historical books, which is simply given in language and words, intended to give a history and a record of these things. He also spoke in proclamation, the giving of the law and the commandments, and the making known of his will to us in all things. These are God's words to the fathers by the prophets. He also spoke in announcements, that is, the prophecy of things to come. The book of Isaiah and the prophecies of Christ and announcements. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son. He also spoke mysteries. A good example of that is in Psalm 78. The first eight verses. Give ear, O my people, to my law, Incline your ears to the words of my mouth, I'm a speaking God. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling the children, telling the generation to come of the praises of the Lord. and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, this speaking God. He appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children. And the generation to come might know them, that the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them unto their children. That's before we had a Bible. passed on down by the speaking God to their children. Why? That they might set their hope in God, and forget not the works of God, but keep His commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set his heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. It is noteworthy of our remembrance and taking note of this, that the children of Israel were not given to us as an example of what we ought to be, but of what we ought not to be, and warning that we should not be that way. That's what God tells us in those people. In all of these ways, God spoke through the prophets. These prophets were divinely inspired living oracles of the eternal God, 2 Peter 1.21. Or, they wrote those things as the Spirit of God moved upon them, divinely inspired, 2 Peter 1.21. However, like all prophets, they didn't get much of a hearing. In Matthew chapter 23, our Lord tells us that in verse 29 from Matthew 23. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt." Peter, Stephen, The martyr Stephen, just before they stoned him, also echoed these words and these thoughts in verse 51 of Acts 7. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers. The Prophet's dispensation, however, is now past. For the Prophet Malachi, there followed 400 years of God's prophetic silence, public silence. That silence was broken. In the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, when John the Baptist came out of the wilderness, thundering the Word of God, preaching repentance toward God. How do we know that was God speaking? Because people thronged out of the cities to hear Him and were baptized, confessing their sins. Now it's one thing to gather a crowd, but to gather a crowd, to hear an old hairy, clothed, scraggly-looking, bearded, wild-eyed fellow yelling at people, telling them they're going to hell if they don't confess their sins, Oh, no, that's not the way you build a seeker's church. But here they came, and not only did they hear Him, they said, You're right! And they repented and were baptized, confessing their sins. That tells us something about what baptism means. They understood that, that they'd been bad, they'd been evil, that they'd been wicked. They deserved the judgment of God. This was God speaking. through this last of the Old Testament prophets." That's God's voice. That wasn't John the Baptist's voice. When asked, who are you? He said, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. It's God speaking through the last of the prophets to the people at that time. When Jesus appeared on the scene, God spoke through John, the last Old Covenant prophet and declared Jesus to be the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the world. Nobody dreamed that up. God said that. A voice came down from heaven and said, This is my Son whom I am well pleased. On the Mount of Transfiguration, God spoke to Peter and James and John and said of Jesus, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. hear Him. And that brings us to the main portion of the message this morning. The speaking God who spoke to our fathers by the prophets has spoken to us. Isn't that wonderful? God speaking to us, to me, God speaking to me, even aware of me, to know that I exist. He knows our names, where we live, what we do, what we think. He knows how we feel. You may put on a mask and try to pretend And snooker people into thinking how you feel about certain things, but God knows exactly how we feel. He knows our thoughts and how we feel and still love us and not reject us, throw us into hell. He knows how we feel. He knows what we hate and knows what we love. He knows our hearts better than we do. And He knows our needs better than we know them, and I'm so thankful for that. And He's ready to be our God if we're ready to be His child. The speaking God has spoken to us by His Son, John 10 and 3. To Him the doorkeeper opens. And the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, the speaking God. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of the strangers. Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. And all who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. In verses 27-30, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I am My Father. are one. Please, let us consider the enormity and the wonder of this fact. Of all the infinite expanse of the universe, and of all that it may compose, and of all of God's creation, He has singled us out, personal, individual, mortal persons and spoken to us. God speaking to me? Wonderful. No wonder this is so incredulous and we have such a popular denial by people who are otherwise orthodox that God speaks to us personally and individually. Most folks say, well, yeah, you need to read the Bible and see what God says. But we'll admit that God speaks to us personally, individually. If He did not, why doesn't everyone hear the same thing when they read the Bible? Why don't they all believe? I mean, if God's speaking to us then, He doesn't say one thing to one, another to another. No, it's God speaking to us. Now consider how much more excellent is the Word of God to us in the person of His Son than the Word of God to our fathers by the prophets. Now when he spoke to the fathers by the prophets, that was quite, that was something. Here's the people who have no inward light in their soul. I'm talking about the children of Israel. Their soul is in complete darkness. They descended from Adam. The Spirit of God is gone from their heart and soul. They are dead in trespasses and sins. They are ruled by the lust of their own flesh, by their own carnal desires. Not only that, but they are harassed and tormented and driven by demons, evil spirits. They are in complete darkness. They know that God exists, but they do not know Him and have never seen Him and have never heard Him. And here comes a man to whom God had spoken, who has the staff of the Almighty upon him. No wonder, when one of those prophets arose in the midst of him, he was revered and worshipped by those who sought God, and hated and despised and persecuted by those who did not seek God. He's a divinely inspired oracle of God, and when he spoke it was just like God speaking. He spoke God's words. God had been spoken to them. Many times he did not understand those words, and they were prophetic words, and he did not understand them. Even when they weren't dreams and visions and definitely inspired words, he didn't understand what was going to happen in the future. When we read the book of Daniels and Ezekiel, Books like that are still a great mystery to us, don't you know? They didn't understand it any better than we did. But he's a divinely inspired living oracle of God. He can and he does tell men God's will. Now I don't go to you and you don't come to me and ask me what God's will is for my life, for your life. But the Old Testament prophet did. The fellow wanted to know what God wanted him to do about this. He went to the prophet and said, I got this problem in this part, what shall I do? What God's word? Go ask God what I should do on this. And he'd come back and he'd say, this is what God said you should do. And he did it. And he could do it in the confidence of knowing this is a man of God, he's heard from God, and I can do this in confidence. That's the face of the fathers who believed God's word at the mouth of the prophet. So he told them God's will, God's purpose, God's command, God's covenant, God's promises that do not and cannot fail. That's wonderful. That was wonderful for that time. But their dispensation is now past. And we do not, we must not look in that direction for the Word of God any longer. I'm not saying now we should not read prophetic books, the Bible. We should not read the Old Testament. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that God has done more than that. He who spoke in times past that way has spoken to us today by His Son. He has now spoken to us by His Son. He's not just a mortal man. but to incarnate God Himself. He has come to us speaking. He can tell us what God is like. We don't have to wonder about what God is like anymore. Just look at Jesus. Oh, is that something heavy? God is like Him? Yeah. How do you get that? The Bible says, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. There's not a thing in the world that you can see about Jesus Christ that isn't a perfect mirror of our God. Wow! Wow! A God like Jesus. The brightness of His glory. the ineffable beauty of His person. Oh, I'm not talking about a picture of Jesus, these artist's paintings of some fellow with a beard and long hair. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the picture that is given of what He is and the words of Him. What John saw at Patmos. The express image of His person. All that God is. In his person he reveals God's compassion, His kindness and His condescension. Do you think you have compassion for people that you weep? Do you see people weeping? Do you feel sorry for folks suffering? Do you feel outraged when people are abused, and downtrodden, and slandered, and hated, and rejected, and thrown out? You don't know what compassion is. We don't have an intercessor, a mediator that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, because He was made in all points like us. You think He doesn't know what rejection is, and being slandered is, and being despised, and being mocked, and being ridiculed? Yes, He knows that. It may not make your suffering any lighter. It will help you to understand that He knows. And that as there was purpose in His suffering, there will be in yours. He reveals God's compassion, His condescension. One of the Psalms talks about God is so great to humble Himself and behold us just in the dust. He knows our frame that we are but dust. As a father pitieth his son even doth the Lord pity all of His children. God's wisdom, the perfect profound wisdom in the words of Jesus Christ, God's perfect righteousness, God's absolute sovereignty, He effectually chooses He chose His disciples. He chooses whom and when and how He heals. Whom He raises up and to whom He gives His eternal life. John 17 and 2. His omnipotence. The elements of sea and wind all have to obey Him. All He has to do is say, Peace be still. And they lie down. Our diseases. The worst. of our diseases and afflictions that man cannot cure, nothing can cure. He can rebuke it, cause it to go away. A man who's never walked, never learned to walk, never had any strength in his legs, doesn't have to be taught, never taken a step in his life. Glad to see Benjamin learned how to walk. That impotent man didn't have to learn how to walk. He jumped up leaping and jumping and running. His omnipotence, our diseases, the devil and demons, sin and death, they all must obey Him. From Matthew 28, we see a little bit of that spoken in His resurrection. After the Sabbath and the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like the lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified." He's not here. for He is risen. As He said, Come, see the place where ye lay, and go quickly, and tell the disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you in the Galilee, and there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you." He also tells us what man is, for He was also the perfect man, perfect in humility, gentleness, and meekness. perfect in subjection and obedience in His life, perfect in obedience in the giving of His life on the cross. God has spoken. The tense is present, perfect. His speaking is complete. This does not mean that He is not with each of us in the person of His Spirit guiding, helping, comforting, and teaching us. He is a good Shepherd who is ever feeding and caring for His sheep. Nor does it mean that there will be no more divinely inspired and ordered utterances of His people. On the contrary, the last days are marked by such utterances from all of God's people, not just a few prophets. from the 2nd chapter of Acts. I read from Peter's quotation from the prophecy of Joel in verses 17 and 18 of Acts 2. And it shall come to pass, in the last day, says God, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, the same as the day when God has spoken to us by His Son. In the last day, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit of those days." They speak, they prophesy. Such prophetic utterances from sons and daughters, servants and handmaids are nothing more or less than God speaking to us by His Son. I will come to you by the Holy Spirit. He who has come to us by the Spirit, hear them. What it means in the last days of His speaking, it means these are the last days of His speaking. He will not go silent again after these days, but there will simply be no more days, no more time periods after these days. There will be succeeding generations during these days, and each generation will have the Word of God by God's Son spoken to us by them. Everything we need to know and walk in the way of life has been given to us in Jesus Christ. These, the last days, are also our days. Our eternal destiny will be determined on how we hear God by His Son in these days. Human history is drawing close to a close in these days. Hebrews 12, 22 through 25. A passage we have referred to often recently. Hebrews 12, 22 through 25. But you have come to Mount Zion. to the City of the Living God, to the heaven of Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Jesus has earned the right to be heard. He by Himself has purged us of our sins. He upholds all things by the word of His power. He sits enthroned, waiting for every knee to bow, and He will not be disappointed. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. In closing, finishing out the 115th Psalm, verses 9 through 18. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and the earth The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth is given to the children of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. I know we don't usually do this, but let's sing a song. Number 10. The Blue Hemlock. Do you understand? No, that's not it. That's not what we're looking for. 46. She knows what I want. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease, His music in the sinner's ears, His life and health and peace. He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the palace clean, His blood avails for me. Hear him, ye deaf, his praise ye dumb, Your loosened tongues implore. Ye blind, behold Him, save your cup, and sleep, ye lame, for joy. Glory to God, and praise and love be ever, ever given by saints below and saints above the church in earth and heaven. Amen.